


The Path to Lordship

by redcandle17



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - Martin
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-18
Updated: 2010-02-18
Packaged: 2017-10-07 09:04:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/63558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redcandle17/pseuds/redcandle17
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Former sellsword Ser Bronn of the Blackwater works his way to lordship of Castle Stokeworth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Path to Lordship

It wasn't the stuff of legends, that was for sure. His bride was a lackwit and pregnant with a bastard fathered by any one of the dozen common men who'd raped her. And she was certainly no beauty. She wasn't even the heir either. However her older sister Falyse was childless and rapidly approaching the age where it was unlikely she'd ever bear a child, and that was what made Lollys a prize. She wasn't her lady mother's heir, but she was her sister's heir. Bronn was going to be Lord Stokeworth one day - and sooner rather than later if he had his way.

But first he had to bed his bride. It was an unappealing task to begin with and Lollys made it harder. She shrieked and cried when he touched her, and then she tried to flee the room. He tried to explain that it was necessary, but she couldn't seem to understand him.

It went from bad to worse when her mother came running. Lady Tanda apologized to him and led her daughter back to the bed. Bronn watched her soothe Lollys and wondered if she'd been waiting outside. _If she expected this hysteria, she might have seen fit to get her daughter good and drunk._

"Maester Frenken will be along with something to calm her," she replied, when he suggested it.

The maester was accompanied by a maid with a cup of honeyed water because Lollys had to have something sweet whenever she took a maester's potion. _Might as well invite the bloody stableboys to come watch too and be done with it._

Lollys was in a stupor when they finally left. She didn't react when Bronn sat down on the bed. He had to take his cock in hand to get himself ready. Once he was inside Lollys, he tried to forget about her and think only of the night he'd enjoyed the expensive company of both Dancy and Alayaya.

"Good enough for the High Septon," he said, after it was over. They were truly married now and there was no way out but death. It wasn't as if Lollys could get pregnant with his babe while she carried another babe so Bronn decided there was no reason to fuck her again until she'd delivered her bastard.

Lady Tanda didn't like him. That much had been obvious from the start. She'd agreed to wed her daughter to him because she was desperate and because Cersei Lannister had no doubt made it worth her while. She'd assured Bronn before the wedding that not much would be expected of him. After the wedding Bronn was quick to make it clear to her how things would be. He insisted upon a full tour of the Stokeworth lands and on talking with the steward and the chief servants. He shadowed the old woman when she went about the business of governing her holdings, learning what he would need to do when he was lord.

She gave him a new horse and a hunting hawk, all but begging him to content himself with the pleasures of nobility and leave the reins of power in her hands. Bronn thanked her and continued as before. "Let me take some of your burden, good mother," he said to her, before he informed her that she was lucky the wolves hadn't reached her borders or the lions hadn't decided to maraud here for fun. Castle Stokeworth had too few guards to defend it if it came to a fight.

He sent a bird to King's Landing to spread the word that he was looking to hire swords. Men came, some who owned their own horses, some who begged rides from farmers, and even a couple who walked. Bronn set about determining those worth hiring the same way he'd hired sellswords for the Imp; he fought them with blunted swords and hired the ones who held their own.

He was instructing his new men on the importance of learning to work together when a maid came for him. "Your wife's in labor, ser," she said. Bronn hastened to the chamber where Lady Tanda, Falyse, Maester Frenken, the village midwife, and a gaggle of maids were crowded around Lollys. He wasn't a religious man, but he found himself praying silently now. _Don't let her die._ If Lollys died before her mother and her sister, he would inherit nothing.

However it would be a blessing if the babe was stillborn or a girl. A boy would stand ahead of his own sons in the line to inherit Castle Stokeworth. _Spare me an unpleasant task and take the child._

It was a mixed bag in the end. Lollys lived and the maester and the midwife both agreed that there was no problem that would prevent her from bearing more children. The babe survived too; a healthy boy with powerful lungs.

"We shall name him after my husband," Lady Tanda said.

Bronn didn't really give a damn what the child was called, but he couldn't pass up a chance to assert himself. "It's my place to name my wife's babe, isn't it?"

"It is," the old woman conceded with barely concealed irritation.

"I think the best name for him is..._Tyrion_." He knew they had asked Cersei Lannister for permission to name the child Tywin and he could guess that they'd been denied.

"That is the name of a traitor," Falyse cried shrilly. "A kinslayer. The Queen will be angry."

Bronn grinned. "It's just a name."

Having a babe to care for calmed Lollys. She was no longer fearful and prone to fits of agitation. She tended to the child with utter devotion, nursing him herself and cleaning him and singing lullabies. Still, when he watched them together, Bronn was reminded more of a little girl playing with a doll than any of the real mothers he'd known. When she bore him a child, he'd make sure she had a maid watching her at all times.

The other change at Castle Stokeworth was even better. Falyse took her sour presence and her useless husband to King's Landing. No doubt she intended to grovel before Cersei and make it clear that her nephew's name was entirely Bronn's doing. If he was lucky, she would stay at court a good long time. And if he was very lucky, she'd be killed by outlaws on her way back.

The life of a lord was as good as it'd looked from the outside. He went hunting, ordered delicacies served for no special occasion, gambled more coin than he had in his old life, sampled the rare vintages in the wine cellar, and enjoyed the charms of all the serving women attractive enough to draw his attention.

Just when Bronn thought life couldn't get any better, his good mother fell down a flight of stairs on her way to see her grandson. She didn't die, but she did break her hip. Bronn figured that was the beginning of the end for her. With Lady Tanda confined to her bed chamber, Bronn took charge of those lordly duties he'd only observed before. He sat in the huge chair in the great hall reserved for the head of the house and listened to the smallfolk who brought their grievances before him. He passed judgment as best he could, and there were no complaints. The people accepted him - though likely it had more to do with the well-armed men around him than their personal opinion of him - and he anticipated no resistance when he became their lord in truth.

Then Falyse came back. Her husband Ser Balman must have started drinking the hypocras his wife was so fond of because he challenged Bronn to a duel with lances. Bronn grinned when he heard and he laughed when he realized the overweight, middle-aged knight was serious.

"I accept your challenge, ser," he replied with mock courtesy.

Falyse looked positively gleeful then. Bronn could guess what she was thinking, that he didn't know how to use a lance and he was bound to lose. She was wrong. Bronn might not know how to handle a lance so it splintered prettily against a knight's shield, but he knew how to drive a weapon through a man's body.

Once he was atop the horse, facing Balman across the yard, Bronn realized the lance did take some practice. On a galloping horse, the human body wasn't as good a target as he'd thought. The horse presented a better target. As Balman rode at him with his lance aimed at his chest, Bronn aimed his own lance at Balman's horse. He hit his mark and the horse went down, taking his rider with him.

Bronn dismounted leisurely. Balman was screaming in pain, at least one of his bones broken by the fall or crushed by the weight of his horse atop him. Falyse was shrieking too. She ran to her husband. Bronn pulled her away. She tried to go to her man again so he hit her. As she lay stunned in the dirt, he drew his dagger and crouched beside Balman. "Tell me why you decided to challenge your loving good brother to a duel."

"My legs! Get the maester, please. My legs are broken."

Bronn pressed the point of the dagger into his cheek. "Tell me."

"The Queen asked us to kill you. To stop you from any more treason."

Bronn shoved the dagger deep into his eye, into his brain, killing him. He rose and turned to face his good sister.

"You killed him," Falyse sobbed.

"That's how a duel ends," Bronn said. He was tempted to kill her too, but that might invite trouble once word got out. "You'd best leave now while I'm feeling merciful."

She stared at him. Then she started towards the main keep. Bronn moved to block her. "I need to pack my clothes," she said.

Bronn grinned at her. "They're my wife's clothes now." It was absurd. Lollys had only gotten fatter while Falyse was thin as a stick. But it amused him. And he could always make a few gold dragons by selling those silk gowns to a trader.

"You can't do this. I want to see my mother."

Bronn let the grin disappear. "Go or I'll give you to the garrison." His men laughed. "If any of them will have you."

That scared her. Falyse was on a horse and out of the castle before he could blink.

Afterward he worried that she would hire swords and fight him for her inheritance. _Might have been better to throw her in the dungeon._ Falyse hadn't had a chance to take any gold with her though, and sellswords cost money. He supposed she could go to Cersei, but he doubted the queen would pay for a job that had been so badly botched.

A moon passed without word from Falyse, or word of her. Then another moon passed and Bronn's worry eased. He figured outlaws must have gotten her. One day he really ought to visit a sept and thank the gods for his luck. He was Lord Stokeworth in every way that counted. His men and the servants all addressed him as _m'lord_, not _ser_.

Tanda Stokeworth still lived. The maester even said her hip was mending. As far as Bronn was concerned the man was wasting too much of his time with the old woman. "You should pay a visit to the village. I saw a lot of people coughing. Heard there are people ill out on the farms too."

"Lady Tanda needs my care."

"I gave you an order, old man."

Maester Frenken stared at him with anger and Bronn thought he was crazy enough to refuse. But in the end he lowered his gaze and shuffled from the room. Bronn stayed. He studied his sleeping good mother for a moment, then he opened the windows wide so she could enjoy the cool late autumn air.

"Maester Frenken won't let me take Tyrion to see Mother," Lollys complained. She'd never come to Bronn before. He took it as a good sign that even a lackwit could tell he was in charge.

"She's sick," Bronn explained. "You don't want the babe to get sick too and die, do you?"

Lollys quickly shook her head.

Bronn considered the babe in her arms thoughtfully. He should let her take him and hope he did get sick. On the other hand, it might cause trouble with the people if he died now. It was one thing for a man to rid himself of his wife's troublesome relatives; it was another to be known as a baby-killer.

Little Tyrion made a sound that might almost have been a word. Bronn touched his head lightly. "You'd best grow up smart or pious, boy, because it's the Citadel or the Faith for you."


End file.
